


All Changed Utterly

by helsinkibaby



Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: F/M, Het, Pre series, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13625796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: When Horatio takes over the Crime Lab, it's not the only change.





	All Changed Utterly

"So, what do you think of the new boss?"

The woman sitting on the couch next to him turned huge green eyes up to him, surprise clear on her face, and Speed couldn't say that he blamed her. After all, it's not like it was a particularly subtle way to broach the subject, and it was breaking one of their unspoken rules about nights like this, that they could talk about anything but work.

He hadn't meant to ask the question, it had just come out. In the same fashion, he'd never expected to fall into this, this easy companionship with a woman he'd worked with for years, and had remained just colleagues with. They were friendly sure, but he would never have called them friends, until that day a couple of months ago when they attended Sean Donner's memorial service. He hadn't been looking forward to going, funerals holding bad memories for him, but he'd wanted to be there for Megan if nothing else. He'd been quite surprised when Calleigh approached him the day before it, wondering if he was going, and would he mind if she met him outside if he was? "I know it's ridiculous," she'd said, shifting on her feet awkwardly, hardly able to look at him. "But I hate going to these things, and I just thought…" He'd stopped her there, not making her say anymore, because he knew just what she meant, and he wouldn't mind the support either.

They'd gone to the service and had gone back to the house afterwards, seeing Megan, telling her once more how sorry they were, but they hadn't stayed that long; too much family, too many people they didn't know for either one of them to feel comfortable. So they'd left, and he'd ripped off his jacket and tie before they even got back to her car, undoing the top couple of buttons of his shirt and rolling up his sleeves. He'd looked at Calleigh when they reached the car, and he'd known that she didn't want to be alone any more than he did, so he'd found himself asking her if she wanted to get a beer someplace.

She'd countered that with an offer of dinner at her place.

He'd been too surprised to say no, and he'd been even more surprised to enjoy himself, to find that Calleigh Duquesne was actually pretty good company.

That had been the first time that it had happened, and since then it had evolved into something of a weekly ritual, where they'd adjourn to her place, just the two of them, eat dinner, drink beer, and talk. It was mostly her place, because she had by far the more comfortable couch if one of them had too much to drink and didn't want to chance driving, and also because, and Speed freely admitted this, his place was the quintessential bachelor pad, or as Calleigh was wont to call it, hovel. Nor did it hurt that she was far better in the kitchen than he was, her homemade cuisine a welcome change for him, but he'd been shamed into providing food on more than one occasion, hence tonight's Chinese cartons scattered over Calleigh's usually immaculate living room table.

There was only one rule that they normally stuck to, and that was that they rarely talked about work, and if they did, it was only in the most anecdotal of terms. 

Speed welcomed the chance to switch off, not to have to dissect his day with someone, and he had the feeling that she felt the same way too. Besides, in the last few weeks, the two of them had had a ringside seat as their boss, a woman that they both held in extremely high regard, fell apart, and both had wanted to forget that that was happening.

Then Megan had left, and Horatio Caine had taken over, and this was the first chance they'd had to talk about it since then.

Hence his breaking of the rules.

"Horatio?" she asked slowly, and he knew her well enough to know by now that she was trying to buy some time. "He seems ok."

He gave her a sideways glance, lifting one eyebrow. "But you knew him before this, right? I mean, he is the one who got you assigned here."

"Only because he knew my old supervisor," Calleigh protested, one hand extended. "He said they needed a ballistics expert out here, next thing I know, I'm on a plane to Miami. I met him a handful of times, that's it."

"And you really think he's ok?"

Calleigh responded to his question with a shrug. "It's hard to say after only a couple of weeks," she allowed. "But he doesn't treat me as if I'm just some dumb blonde from the South, which is refreshing." Her tone was more than a little bitter, and having heard some of the less than complimentary comments about Calleigh around the department, Speed knew why. She went on to prove that Horatio was right not to treat her as such by turning shrewd eyes on Speed, eyeing him up as if he were a specimen in the lab. "What do you think of him?"

Another shrug. "He's ok," he said grudgingly, not missing the quick grin that flashed across her face as he echoed her words. "But there's something about him…he seems a lot more…I don't know…formal than Megan. You know what I mean?"

He'd looked away from her as he was formulating the thoughts, and when he looked back at her now, he saw a funny little smile hovering about her lips. "I do," was all she said, but he knew that there was something she wasn't telling him.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nothing," she replied, her lips twitching, and she wouldn't look at him.

"Tell me," he ordered, wondering briefly if tickling the information out of her would be crossing a line, deciding instantly that it would be, and wondering where the impulse had come from in the first place.

Still with that same look on her face, still not looking at him, she put him out of his misery. "Just that if anyone was going to miss Megan, was going to find fault with her replacement, it was going to be you."

He frowned, not quite following her line of thought. "Me?" he questioned suspiciously, and she nodded.

"It's quite obvious that you look up to Megan…that she's your mentor." She shrugged. "We all know how you feel about her."

The implication was there in her voice, and he was torn between a number of different responses. Outright denial for one, followed immediately by a desire to question her about who was talking and what they were saying. Neither one won though, and instead he gave her a smile of his own. "You almost sound jealous," he observed, and her eyes opened wide, the picture of innocence wounded.

"Just making an observation," she told him, in a voice that matched the eyes, and he decided that it might be as well to leave well enough alone on that one.

"What about the new kid?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes at his choice of words.

"He's three years younger than you are Speed," she told him. "That hardly makes him a kid."

"What makes him a kid," he refuted, reaching over to pick up his bottle of beer from the table, poking it in her direction in illustration, "Is how green he is."

"Delko's eager to learn, that's all," Calleigh replied, defending the newest recruit to their team. "He wants to do well. We were all like that when we started out."

Tim honestly couldn't remember if he had been; somehow, he didn't think so. "You see him around H though? Could he try any harder to impress him?" He'd also noticed the younger man acting the same way around Calleigh, though he didn't point that out to her. A gulp from his beer bottle did little to wash away the bitter taste of bile that had suddenly risen in his mouth at that thought, and he didn't want to question too closely why it was there.

Calleigh wasn't looking at him though, staring straight ahead, an affectionate smile on her lips. "He does have a touch of the exuberant puppy about him," she nodded. "But I dunno… I think it's cute."

Speed resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but only barely. "Well, you certainly seem enamoured of him," he commented, placing the bottle back on the table, and she turned a teasing look on him.

"You almost sound jealous," she observed, her voice low and mirthful, and he shifted uncomfortably on his seat, not quite able to look at her as she threw his own words back at him.

"Just making an observation," he replied, figuring turnabout was fair play and she threw her head back, laughing. He didn't hear her laugh very often, and he decided right then and there that he liked the sound, decided that he wouldn't mind hearing it more often.

"What if I were?"

The words were out before he even thought about them, almost before he even realised what he was saying. He would have nearly thought that he'd only thought them, not spoken them aloud at all had he not seen her freeze, had she not turned her head ever so slowly towards him. "What if you were what?" she asked, her voice neutral, her face neutral, betraying nothing of her feelings.

He wanted to let it go, wanted to pretend that he'd never spoken, knowing that that would be the smart thing to do. He knew that he should make a joke, that he should stand up, move away from her, make like the whole thing never happened.

Instead, he reached up, cupping her cheek with his hand. "Jealous," he whispered, his thumb tracing her skin, marvelling at how soft it was, feeling the heat under his palm as she blushed.

"Why would you be jealous?" she murmured, her voice so low that he could barely hear her, especially since she ducked her head. He wasn't going to let her get away with that though, wanted her to look at him, so he shifted slightly in his seat, turning on the couch so that he could face her, bringing his free hand up to her other cheek as he brought his face closer to hers.

"Calleigh…" He whispered her name as she moved her head from side to side, seeking to evade his lips, but she was leaning into him at the same time, making no moves to break away from him. "You want me to stop?" he breathed, and perhaps it was the question that made the decision for her.

"No," she whispered, a split second before her lips found his, and they didn't speak for a long time after that, not until they found themselves lying on the couch, him on his back, her mostly on top of him, his hands running up and down her back contentedly. There was a broad smile on her face as she looked down at him, and he found himself returning it, an action that for some reason, sent her off into peals of giggles.

"What's so funny?" he asked, and he could see her make a concerted effort to control herself.

"Nothing," she replied, brushing her lips over his quickly. "Just that if I'd known making out on my couch would get you to smile like that, I'd have done it a long time ago."

"Oh really?" He drew the word out, placing seven different syllables into it, reaching up and tucking an errant lock of hair back behind her ear. "So you've been wanting to make out with me for a while then?"

She giggled again. "Not telling," she said, laying her head back down on his chest, but he couldn't help noticing that she didn't deny it.

"This is going to change everything," he told her after a few minutes of silence, and he heard her sigh against his shoulder.

"There've been a lot of changes lately," she observed. "What's one more?"

She was trying to tell him to leave well enough alone, to just enjoy the moment, but Speed was incapable of doing that. Mentally cursing himself, he continued, 

"You know what I mean Calleigh…I mean, what do we do? Do we tell Horatio? Do we not tell him? How long do we wait for? Do we-"

Any further questions were cut off when she propped herself up slightly on one arm, using the other to pull his head towards hers, silencing him rather effectively with what part of Speed's mind noticed clinically, was one hell of a kiss. "I don't know about you," she told him calmly, the steadiness of her voice belied by the dancing in her eyes. "But I'm going to lie here on this couch for a while, and then I'm going to turn in for the night. You're more than welcome to join me."

He took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and with it, let go of any worries that he might have had. "And after that?" he asked, because he wanted to know, wanted to hear it from her.

"After that?" she asked, settling her head back down on his chest. "We'll see what tomorrow brings."

Speed considered that for a moment, tightening his arms around her, closing his eyes. "Sounds good to me."


End file.
